


Acting Up

by lindamonroe



Category: The Solve It Squad - Tin Can Brothers
Genre: Coming Out, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 01:33:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29428167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lindamonroe/pseuds/lindamonroe
Summary: Keith and Gwen come out to the rest of the squad.
Relationships: Esther/Gwen (The Solve It Squad), Gwen & Keith (The Solve It Squad), Milf Addiction, Scrags/Keith (The Solve It Squad)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18





	Acting Up

**Author's Note:**

> [Written 3/14: After seeing the Back in Biz stream, I'm not super happy with how I characterized any of the characters in this but I have plans for another fic in its stead!]

Esther slammed their fist onto the arm of the couch triumphantly with the most energy Gwen had seen out of them all week. “Fucking finally! I was wondering when you two were gonna cut it out with the straight bullshit.” 

A smile sprang onto Gwen’s face. 

Looking utterly perplexed standing beside his ex, Keith scratched his head and looked down at Esther taking another swig of their drink. “Don’t you mean straight up bullshit? I think you forgot the ‘up’.” 

They gave him their classic eyeroll that Gwen knew so well, and they leaned back further into Scrags’ dinky little couch. Any more and they would have knocked the flimsy thing over backwards. It’d happened a couple times before, at least in Gwen's presence. They had a bit of an issue with slumping down too far into it and ended up on the floor pretty often as a result. “Not in the slightest. I mean, dude, look at you two! That was the most obviously fake heterosexual shenanigans I’ve ever seen. First of all, she’s way out of your league-” 

Gwen had to hold back a yelp. 

“-and you’re way too straight to be straight. Plus, I know alphabet mafia members when I see them.” They folded their arms and gave him an indifferent ‘so there you have it!’ glance. 

He looked vaguely surprised. Scrags seemed more concerned about the alphabet mafia... whatever that was. 

Gwen, however, could have cared less about what she assumed to be an underground network of kindergarten teachers and was rapidly approaching tears instead. “Hold the phone, Est. Did you just say our acting endeavor was ‘obviously fake’?” 

As she began to blubber, Esther sprang into action and shook their head vigorously, waving their arms around for good measure. “No! No, not at all, Gwen. You were fantastic! You did a damn good job to the average eye. It’s just that I don’t have the average eye. Or the average gaydar.” 

Keith’s eyes expressed genuine shock almost as much as the loud gasp he immediately let fly. “No. Way. You’re...?” 

Crickets. Gwen and the other two stared at him suspiciously for a solid ten seconds as he switched back and forth between squirming under three pairs of eyes and being shocked that Esther was gay. 

Esther finally cleared their throat and spoke up, still staring him down like nobody’s business. “...Yeah, I’m a-” 

“Lesbian,” Gwen interjected. 

He looked absolutely scandalized. Keith whirled on her, folding his arms with a scowl and looking altogether much too betrayed for something that was so obvious and he should’ve known anyway. “You knew they were a lesbian and didn’t ever think to tell me? Gwen, I thought we were in this together!” 

She put her perfectly manicured hands up in defense and continued to stare at him incredulously. “I thought you knew!” 

“How the hell would I know?” 

“Have you ever fucking spoken to themr? Or even just listened to any of the times they mentioned their girlfriend?” 

Gwen sure had. 

She also noticed that Esther refrained from mentioning that they were an ex-girlfriend. Gwen and Scrags already knew, and it would probably send Keith into even more of a frenzy. Or he’d ask for their number. On second thought, that one seemed way more likely. After all, he wasn't gay. The reveal that he and Gwen were both bisexual was what had kicked this conversation off in the first place. To Gwen’s knowledge, so far that meant that Keith was interested in Scrags, Gwen, and random girls at bars; and Gwen pretended she wasn’t staring at Esther from across those same bars when she was out on the floor dancing with flirty guys. 

God, she was a mess. 

The himbo’s dejected and shameful “not really” dragged Gwen from her thoughts, and Esther snorted. It was unsurprising to the three of them that Keith retained exactly zero of what Esther said. Ever. Because when had he ever retained anything that anyone said unless it was about sports? 

Scrags got up from his spot on the couch opposite Esther and patted Keith on the shoulder much less awkwardly than he usually did. “Listen, man; I’m just glad you aren’t homophobic.” His adult pubescent voice seemed to be alleviated for a moment as he finally managed to voice what they’d all thought for years. Gwen could see in his eyes that the meaning went deeper than he cared to reveal, even if he hadn’t chosen to open up to her personally. 

A twice scandalized Keith gasped again and turned on Scrags this time. “Why the hell would I be homophobic, man? That’s not cool or chill, and I'm the coolest chill guy I know! And you’re my coolest chill guy, right?” 

Words cannot describe the magnitude of the matching eyerolls that Gwen and Esther gave. 

Something akin to “I’m not cool” came mumbled from Scrags, and Keith harrumphed disapprovingly. 

“Sure you are! Come on, you even beat me at Smash on your second try and you hadn’t played since we were in middle school!” 

A smile crept onto Scrags’ face and he chuckled. 

Gwen could tell he was probably thinking back to Keith hurling himself across the room for no apparent reason as he writhed on the bed and pushed buttons as fast as his fingers would physically allow before throwing the controller across the room and flopping down across Scrags’ lap instead. Keith had talked her ear off about it. More so about Scrags than the game, though, so it must have been something special indeed. 

Nothing short of a smirk waltzed its way onto Keith’s face and he grinned at Scrags as he attempted to point to the door using his eyebrows. It didn’t work. Keith just stood there and waggled his eyebrows around a bunch, altogether making an absolute fool of himself. 

Gwen and Esther exchanged glances. 

Keith finally gave up on the eyebrows and just raised one instead. “Rematch?” 

He just grinned at him and attempted to waggle his eyebrows in response. He couldn’t, but it made Keith guffaw nonetheless and that seemed to be more than enough for him. 

“Well, we’ll leave you two here to duke it out while we dudes do the same in the other room. Ciao!” 

The other two barely had time to cringe, or react at all, before Keith had already dragged a very smiley Scrags into the other room for a Smash rematch. They all knew Scrags would win. He always won. Not because he was good. He was decent, sure, especially with the number of rematches that Keith had called for. But Keith sucked. Scrags was just average enough to accidentally wipe the floor with him every time. 

But now it was just Gwen and Esther there in the room. They made eye contact after a moment, and Gwen sank into the little couch where Scrags had been a few moments earlier. 

They sat there in weighted silence for a second before Esther smiled a little and Gwen beamed back at them. 

“So. Bi, huh?” 

She nodded enthusiastically, in true Gwen fashion. “I’ve known for a while now and figured it was time that you guys know, too! Keith and I haven’t had an actual thing in ages. It’s been for show as of late. I like the acting and he likes me, so it works out pretty well!” 

“It hasn’t been too hard to tell. I’ve known for a while.” 

“Really?” 

“Yeah. Maybe some of it was wishful thinking, though.” 

Their cheeks went red immediately and Gwen could feel her own doing the same. 

Gwen sat there in agitation for a moment before very obviously scooting closer to them on the couch. A lot closer. It wasn’t a particularly big couch to begin with, so they were nearly touching with how much Gwen had closed the gap. Was she embarrassed? A little. Would she ever admit that? No. And did getting to be closer to Esther make up for it? Absolutely. 

You see, the only reason Gwen hadn’t admonished herself so much for staring at them from across those clubs was because they were staring back at Gwen. Hell, Esther had been staring at Gwen since middle school! Sure, they stared at the boys periodically as well, but it wasn’t even close to the way they looked at Gwen. She could feel it. Esther had felt their spark for years, and Gwen was finally ready to hold a candle to it. 

“You’re really pretty, Est,” Gwen said, leaning in the tiniest bit. 

She could feel Esther’s breath hitch at almost the same time as hers. 

“I’ve thought so for a while,” she continued, her eyes and her heart saying for certain that it was true. 

Esther seemed to have a moment of debate with themself. 

Then it all came rushing out at once. 

“You’re- you’re gorgeous, Gwen. ...And I’ve always thought that. Since day one. And sure, I thought I didn’t like you at first, but it was because you were so intimidating. Looking back, I think that was definitely my way of repressing something else because I didn’t want to get myself into anything so young. But now, I think it might be exactly what I want to get myself into.” 

It had been what, ten minutes since she officially dropped the act with Keith? And here she was, ready to act up again. "...That's really sweet of you, Est." 

Esther flushed a little more, but Gwen could feel that they were thinking the same thing. 

What did they have to lose? 

Twenty years wasn’t something to be wasted. 

And Gwen had wanted this for longer than she'd admit.

They were nearly on top of each other. 

Then they were. 

Her lips oh-so-close to Esther’s, Gwen could barely breathe, let alone speak. “Do you mind if I...?” 

Esther smiled and closed the gap. 

Yeah, she could get used to this.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is dedicated to Milf Simp Central on Twitter! :)


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